CITIZEN POWER ALLIANCE

Here’s the $36 billion question: Is wind power an expensive distraction or a key ingredient in the global energy cocktail? It all depends how you move the juice.

The American Wind Energy Association just released its latest scorecard—as expected, states that have financial incentives are rushing to install wind power. In some places, like Iowa, it even makes an impact. In others, even in wind-friendly states like Texas, wind power’s contribution to the electricity mix is less than a polling margin of error.

Doubts over the real contribution of wind power aren’t just an American thing. Energy Tribune recites the entire litany of arguments against wind power, one of Britain’s hopes for curbing emissions of greenhouse-gases and meeting ambitious European targets for clean energy. ET’s verdict? Wind power is “overblown”: Too dependent on subsidies, plagued by technical problems, intermittent, and ugly to boot, threatening to tarnish forever British hills and beaches. (Ask vacationers in Brighton what ugly really is.)

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